Abandoned, vacant, fire damaged, or buildings undergoing rehab are often targets for trespassers and for criminal or dangerous activity because, among other reasons, such structures typically include windows and doors which allow ready entry and egress into the structures. It typically is difficult, if not impossible, to adequately secure the windows and doors or to otherwise keep trespassers from being readily able to break and enter into such structure through the windows or doors using wood, dogs or guards. Not only can criminal or other dangerous activity of trespassers detrimentally impact the value of the property, it also creates significant liability risks to the property owners and public safety personnel and causes a drain on public safety personnel through the need to patrol, nuisance calls, and fires.
A common way to secure the windows and doors of abandoned or vacant homes is by securing wooden boards to the windows and doors. Such securing efforts have inherent disadvantages. For example, the removal of one or more of the wood screws from one opening may be sufficient to unsecure the entire building. Further, as time passes, the wooden boards and the hardware or securing means becomes weather beaten. Further, such securing efforts tend to result in neighborhood “eyesores” as the wooden boards lack aesthetics.
The economic down turns of the last decade in conjunction with the collapse of the real estate market has created thousands, if not hundred of thousands, of abandoned or vacant houses, dwellings, commercial buildings or other structures that are unsecured from criminal removal of items therein, including appliances, windows, furnaces, copper pipe, copper tube, copper wire, etc. Additionally, because such structures typically become abandoned or vacated due to poor economic circumstances, it follows that the funds available to secure or protect such abandoned or vacant structures from trespassers and criminal activity typically are substantially limited.